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[jmdajr]

I currently have the Wii connected to my HDTV and the 480p signal looks like total trash. I know the WiiU doesn't upscale games, but do they at least look a little crisper?

And adding to that, does the Wii component cables work with it? And if so, can it at least output 720p/1080i?

Thank You.

 

[Occam]

It looks the same as using component on Wii, from what I've seen.

There is no point to use the old component cables on Wii U, it just adds one unnecessary step.

 

[Glirk-Dirka]

No.

 

[jmdajr]

It looks the same as using component on Wii, from what I've seen.

Even if you connect it with HDMI?

 

[jconsolmagno]

Wii looks like junk on my HDTV through my Wii U. I avoid it. Better to run it through Dolphin if you can.

 

[FreeMufasa]

Thought u meant the games from the title.

In that regard, the WiiUs library makes the OG Wiis look like a ps2 in comparison

 

[jacob armitage]

Not from personal experience, i do believe there were tests ran at the Wii U's launch and some found a marginal improvement.

 

[Kthulhu]

I think it outputs in 480p.

 

[MemoryHumanity]

From my experience, yes. It's still a million miles away from Dolphin, but it looks better than Component.

 

[Seth Enosh]

I have the Wii component cable and a Wii U with hdmi. I haven't noticed a major difference, although I know some people have claimed that the Wii component cable is worse than the gamecube's active cable at converting the picture, and therefore the pure digital pipeline of the Wii U is superior.

The Wii component cable also works on the Wii U and outputs at least 1080i or 720p. I forget if it can push 1080p.

 

[MemoryHumanity]

The Wii component cable also works on the Wii U and outputs at least 1080i or 720p. I forget if it can push 1080p.

It can

 

[Bl@de]

Wii looks like junk on my HDTV through my Wii U. I avoid it. Better to run it through Dolphin if you can.

Yep. Jaggies everywhere. Glorious 480p jaggies. I'd recommend Dolphin instead.

 

[Jamix012]

A very minor improvement that's not really worth mentioning.

 

[DownGrader]

It does look notably crisper, and as clean as 480p image could be. While Wii U does not natively upscale Wii games, the 480p picture is still upscaled (stretched) to 1080p, bypassing the TV's upscaler.

Wii component cables do work with Wii U, but it can only output 480p via them. Wii A/V connector is there mostly for outputting the audio signal to your amplifier or the external audio system.

The Wii component cable also works on the Wii U and outputs at least 1080i or 720p. I forget if it can push 1080p.

Huh? I've heard it can only output 480p... Guess I'm wrong.

 

[admiraltaftbar]

Wii through Wii U looks like garbage. Would've been nice if it brought it up to at least 720p but I can why they didn't bother. Still I think it's part of the overall missed potential that is the Wii U.

 

[chaosblade]

I think at 1080p it uses integer scaling, based on the small black bars. And Wii's image quality isn't all that good from the hardware, Wii U over HDMI is an improvement.

So it's better than Wii over component, but not much. You may not even notice any meaningful difference.

 

[shandy706]

Not in my experience.

I wish it did. My first Wii game on Wii U is/was Endless Ocean. It's not pretty on a 55" 4k..lol. It wasn't pretty on a 720p screen in my daughters room either.

I'd love an "HD" or "enhanced" version of the game.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

From my experience, no. Instead of a 480p image being rendered natively and then filling your 720/1080p/1440p etc. display, it's now a 480p image upscaled to 720p or 1080p, then filled to fit your TV.

The upscaling makes things look worse, and I honestly prefer the analogue signal of component over HDMI too.

You also lose the automatic resolution switching in virtual console, everything runs through the same resolution. 240i for 8/16 bit era games has gone.

 

[Peltz]

It upscales from 480p to 1080p, underscans, and adds a slight sharpening filter that subtley increases the appearance of jaggies.

Overall, it's basically the same looking 480p picture. You have to look at individual pixels to see any difference if you select straight 480p output on Wii U and do a comparison to the original Wii.

It's worth noting that Wii U cannot output Wii Virtual Console games at 240p if you intend on ever playing them on a CRT. I transferred all of my VC games from Wii to Wii U the moment I could and found this out the hard way before it was well documented :-/

Plus, you cannot use GCN controllers (absent homebrew software) on Wii titles that support them on Wii U (like SSBB for instance). Personally, I think it's better to keep everything on your original Wii, and just use the Wii U to play Wii U software.

By the way, Wii games still look amazing via component on an SD set.

 

[The Main Event]

I used to run my original Wii through a Wii-HDMI adapter, and the Wii U looks noticeably better. It upconverts the signal to 1080p on your TV. It'll look cleaner, just don't expect miracles.

 

[jmdajr]

Well that's disappointing.

It just looks so damn blurry currently.

 

[CrashPrime]

I believe widescreen games are rendered 853x480 on vWii, while the Wii renders in anamorphic 640x480. Also, HDMI is ever so slightly superior to component, so there is that.

That said, the majority of folks likely couldn't guess vWii vs. Wii when presented the same formatted picture with a game running. There are slight color variations but very little detail differences.

 

[DownGrader]

Well that's disappointing.

It just looks so damn blurry currently.

If the blur is the only thing that bothers you, then Wii U's Wii mode is a notable improvement.

 

[Litri]

They look slightly cleaner but I tend to play them in the GamePad whenever possible as it makes such issues much less noticeable + it helps with jaggies.

 

[Dranakin]

Even if you connect it with HDMI?

Component cables are capable of carrying a full bandwidth 1080p signal, so with all things being ideal, a component cable and a HDMI cable can bring you the same level of quality.

.

 

[mattwhite924]

It depends on your TV's upscaler.

I believe the WiiU displays Wii games with a 2x upscale, so it's a straight integer scale, but you get black borders around the edges. Personally I think it looks a bit better than a launch Wii over component (later Wii's had slightly better component output).

 

[ghibli99]

It's negligible... I wish there was a nearest neighbor 2:1 upscale, but there isn't. I felt the same way playing PS2 games on my PS3. I thought something was legit wrong with my display when I tried Gradius V. LOL

 

[Hermii]

There's less input lag because the Wii U does the scaling instead of your tv. Other than that it looks marginally better.

 

[DownGrader]

It depends on your TV's upscaler.

I believe the WiiU displays Wii games with a 2x upscale, so it's a straight integer scale, but you get black borders around the edges.

Or a ridiculous overscan in some games. HOME Menu in Wario Land: The Shake Dimension is almost falling apart around the edges... that being said, tinkering with the display modes of the TV and display settings of the Wii U usually helps if one's too bothered by that.

 

[killroy87]

There have been multiple times where I thought a Wii game looked Worse on Wii U. It had to be to do with the connections or something.

 

[Inspectah_Deck]

Yes, on WiiU you get a full digital signal from console to TV.
Wii over component is still analogue, so it's always worse.
Depends on the TV-Set, but for me the colors are much improved over HDMI.

 

[Waylon Drums]

The sound is better, at least.

 

[Inspectah_Deck]

Component cables are capable of carrying a full bandwidth 1080p signal, so with all things being ideal, a component cable and a HDMI cable can bring you the same level of quality.

This is false.

Component is an analogue signal.
HDMI is digital.

Digital signals are always superior to analogue.

 

[zenosparadox]

If you weren't using the official Wii component cables, then I would imagine that using the Wii U with HDMI would look significantly better when playing Wii games. Otherwise, you would be hard-pressed to see a difference.

 

[jmdajr]

Fuck it. If I find a WiiU for 199.99 maybe I will buy one.

 

[Peltz]

This is false.

Component is an analogue signal.
HDMI is digital.

Digital signals are always superior to analogue.

The bolded statement is not correct.

 

[BennyBlanco]

If you want good looking Wii games Dolphin is the only solution

 

[Peltz]

If you want good looking Wii games Dolphin is the only solution

A good CRT that natively does 480p will often look better than Dolphin. Some assets in Wii games (like sprites and skyboxes) will often look really bad when blown up to higher resolutions. But generally, Dolphin is pretty amazing.

 

[jackal27]

I've done tons of comparisons and from what I can tell it makes colors crisper, but that's about it.

 

[chifanpoe]

A good CRT that natively does 480p will often look better than Dolphin. Some assets in Wii games (like sprites and skyboxes) will often look really bad when blown up to higher resolutions. But generally, Dolphin is pretty amazing.

I still have a 34inch Panasonic TAU I can pull out of storage just for that reason.

 

[TheMoon]

Wii through Wii U looks like garbage. Would've been nice if it brought it up to at least 720p but I can why they didn't bother. Still I think it's part of the overall missed potential that is the Wii U.

What you want is an unfeasible fairy tale. It can't just magically render the games at higher resolution.

 

[Inspectah_Deck]

The bolded statement is not correct.

How about explaining?

Digital is a lossless signal.
With analogue, you can always lose quality during signal transportation/conversion.
That's why some Hifi-esoterics spend several hundred/thousand Dollars on their analogue cables.

A digital end-to-end signal is always superior.
What the enddevice does with the signal is a whole other question.

 

[antibolo]

It looks worse. Although depending on your TV you might get less input lag than the Wii's component output, so you should consider that.

 

[A Twisty Fluken]

For me it looks worse than a Wii through component to a tv with a decent scaler (which looks fine).

 

[zMiiChy-]

Is there any way to make Wii VC games on Wii U look less blurry on a HDTV?

My boyfriend remembers Super Paper Mario looking much better on a SD TV, and I remember them looking way better on Dolphin.

 

[C.Mongler]

Not at all. I wish Wii games didn't look like putrid dog shit on HD TVs, as it's one of my favorite Nintendo consoles tbh. If Nintendo released a Wii HD that just properly upscaled Wii games on modern displays, I'd buy 6 of them.

 

[LegendofLex]

Is there any way to make Wii VC games on Wii U look less blurry on a HDTV?

My boyfriend remembers Super Paper Mario looking much better on a SD TV, and I remember them looking way better on Dolphin.

There is no such thing as Wii VC on Wii U.

You're literally just playing the Wii games in the console's Wii mode.

 

[Drek]

I own both and have played a good number of games on both. There is an incredibly small difference in the Wii U's favor, and it is almost entirely a matter of color quality.

If you had both a PS3 and Xbox 360 and played the same games on both you'll have some idea what I'm talking about. PS3 games almost always had a more washed out color spectrum. Nothing debilitating, just not as color rich as the X360 version and no amount of TV tuning would really fix it. The Wii U > Wii difference is similar, but even less dramatic.

This is my biggest problem with the Wii. I have mine hooked up to a Sony Wega CRT (that can do 720p/1080i) and it looks pretty good, but even there the colors look a bit more washed compared to my Xbox, PS2, etc.. Nintendo skimped on the video out hardware, just like they skimped on the audio out hardware (did the same with the Wii U, but technological advancement alone made both sets of hardware better than the Wii).

Honestly, I can't imagine hooking my Wii up to an HDTV. The image quality is better on my 480 supporting CRT, the motion controls feel more responsive due to less input lag, etc. etc.. It's a good experience still on a properly calibrated CRT and only goes downhill the more modern set you plug it into.

 

[tomwhite2004]

a good recent discussion on this very topic
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=59908

 

[Peltz]

I own both and have played a good number of games on both. There is an incredibly small difference in the Wii U's favor, and it is almost entirely a matter of color quality.

If you had both a PS3 and Xbox 360 and played the same games on both you'll have some idea what I'm talking about. PS3 games almost always had a more washed out color spectrum. Nothing debilitating, just not as color rich as the X360 version and no amount of TV tuning would really fix it. The Wii U > Wii difference is similar, but even less dramatic.

This is my biggest problem with the Wii. I have mine hooked up to a Sony Wega CRT (that can do 720p/1080i) and it looks pretty good, but even there the colors look a bit more washed compared to my Xbox, PS2, etc.. Nintendo skimped on the video out hardware, just like they skimped on the audio out hardware (did the same with the Wii U, but technological advancement alone made both sets of hardware better than the Wii).

Honestly, I can't imagine hooking my Wii up to an HDTV. The image quality is better on my 480 supporting CRT, the motion controls feel more responsive due to less input lag, etc. etc.. It's a good experience still on a properly calibrated CRT and only goes downhill the more modern set you plug it into.

Not all OG Wii systems were created equal. Some have a cleaner output than others. I have a limited edition red Wii (the one sold for SMB's anniversary) and it outputs a much cleaner signal than a launch Wii.

a good recent discussion on this very topic
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=59908

From this link:

Then you didn't look close enough. Wii U does not show pixels 1:1 in 480p or 480i mode. There's a layer of scaling added. It makes everything look blurry and just a little "off". I've tested them back to back on my PC CRT monitor, with the same component cable.

An original Wii is the only proper way to play Wii games at 480p/i

This is true, unfortunately.